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The Ruin of All Witches by Malcolm Gaskill

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The Ruin of All Witches

Life and Death in the New World

Malcolm Gaskill, Kristin Atherton, Random House Audio

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · August 20, 2024

Reading lane: Gothic Romance

A gripping story of a family tragedy brought about by witch-hunting in Puritan New England that combines history, anthropology, sociology, politics, theology and psychology. “The best and most enjoyable kind of history writing.

At a Glance

Why This Clicks

Early America, Darkly

A moody, readable take on early America that mixes social history with a faint chill.

Come here for

  • Colonial America with a Gothic edge
  • Women, gifts, religion, and spirituality

Expect

  • Practical historical texture
  • A giftable, display-worthy package

Book Details

Authors
Malcolm Gaskill, Kristin Atherton, Random House Audio
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published
August 20, 2024
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Gothic Romance · Witch Romance
Reading lane
Gothic Romance

Affinity

Publisher Categories

  • Colonial America (to 1775)

  • Witchcraft

  • Wicca

About This Book

A gripping story of a family tragedy brought about by witch-hunting in Puritan New England that combines history, anthropology, sociology, politics, theology and psychology. “The best and most enjoyable kind of history writing. Malcolm Gaskill goes to meet the past on its own terms and in its own place…Thought-provoking and absorbing." —Hilary Mantel, best-selling author of Wolf Hall In Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils...

Read full description

A gripping story of a family tragedy brought about by witch-hunting in Puritan New England that combines history, anthropology, sociology, politics, theology and psychology. “The best and most enjoyable kind of history writing. Malcolm Gaskill goes to meet the past on its own terms and in its own place…Thought-provoking and absorbing." —Hilary Mantel, best-selling author of Wolf Hall In Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails, property vanishes, and people suffer convulsions as if possessed by demons. A woman is seen wading through the swamp like a lost soul. Disturbing dreams and visions proliferate. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics and the community becomes tangled in a web of distrust, resentment and denunciation. The finger of suspicion soon falls on a young couple with two small children: the prickly brickmaker, Hugh Parsons, and his troubled wife, Mary. Drawing on rich, previously unexplored source material, Malcolm Gaskill vividly evokes a strange past, one where lives were steeped in the divine and the diabolic, in omens, curses and enchantments. The Ruin of All Witches captures an entire society caught in agonized transition between superstition and enlightenment, tradition and innovation.

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